Quickstyle

Watched youtube about viral tiktok on an Indian wedding: and the group is Asian-Norwegian with some crazy skills~! Followed by youtube video of their other dancing such as Sorry Not Sorry Episode 4.

WOW!

 

Black Hole

Interesting astrophysicist explaining black hole:

https://www.wired.com/video/watch/5-levels-astrophysicist-explains-black-holes-in-5-levels-of-difficulty

Tokiwaso the ‘birthplace’ of modern manga

Kissaten Japanese coffee shops

Kissaten is Japanese adoption of coffee house. Kissaten 喫茶店 literally means tea-drinking place. It often hosts a place for afternoon coffee with assorted cakes.

For breakfast some kissaten served, at Asakusa area;

The cafe has numerous short books that seemed to cater to customers wanting to chillout and read. There is single person counter facing the wall, as well as, a small table of 4. Currently during Covid restriction, all dining places only accommodate up to a party of 4.

Asakusa daytime and night

 Asakusa shopping street:

In the morning

My onsen experience in Tokyo

Onsen is one of my favorite, so whenever I had the opportunities I would spend an hour soaking in onsen. There is a couple of sento or bath houses in downtown Tokyo that are wonderful.

To visit sento, you also need to get armed with an open mind and some Japanese yen. Optionally you should bring a small towel for scrubbing/drying off, a quality body lotion and soap, with a bottle of water to keep you dehydrated. However, all the optional items can be bought or rented at inexpensive price. Sometimes a public bath chooses a day in a week to be closed for regular cleaning and maintenance, so it is good to check which day it is, commonly Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday. Public bath normally operates from 3pm onwards through midnight, but some public bath is open a shorter during in AM for a morning soak.

A sento commonly provides small and medium towel rentals, as well as soap and shampoos/conditioner either complimentary or at sale. Normally there is also a laundry shop next to it.

You approach sento, remove your shoes in one of the shoes locker, keep the key, and purchase a ticket on vending machine. Then, hand your ticket to the cashier to obtain entry.

The cashier is located at a lobby or bathing entrance area that generally also has multiple items available for purchase such as travel size soap, shampoo, conditioner, souvenir towel. It will have a drink vending machine that has mineral water and milk.

Notice the entrance to women and men changing area, and do watch out to enter the right area! There is often a smaller red and blue banner over the entrance of each area respectively.

At the changing area, remove all article of clothing and store them in the lockers provided. The lockers would use coins that is either refundable or costing 100yen per use. There is also a toilet which you can use to relieve yourself prior to entering the bathing area. Slippers are always provided for you to wear while using the toilet.

With a small towel and bottle of water, enter the bathing area and start washing yourself. The courtesy is to cleanse yourself and shower as well as cleanup the area afterwards without hogging a seat. From health standpoint, showing with super hot water allow you to acclimatize your body to the heat of onsen water at the start of your bathing experience. 

Once you are clean, you can choose the first pool to soak in. Enter the pool carefully, holding the railing if needed to test the heat of water. I generally keep my towel folded on my head or safe on the shelf. It is considered rude to soak your towel, and long hair in onsen water, so do tie or bun up your hair before entering a pool.

Some of the recommended bathing houses in Tokyo:

Daikoku-yu 大黒湯 nearby Skytree: This public bath house is one of my favorites in Tokyo. The name literally means 'big black bath'. It is a really nice onsen especially with an outdoor area that has divine pools and a chillout area on deck where there is swings. Note that this outdoor area which every day and is on the men's side on odd days, and women on even days. One of the two outdoor pools is a large pool with milky bath that has a spacious soaking area and a sitting spot. The other outdoor pool is a refreshing cool plunge bath where you can see the top of Skytree on a clear sky. The smell of the oak/pine? pillar that is being heated from the onsen water gently wafted through the air, is so relaxing to your sense of smell and well-being. Then you can return to indoor area where there are four pools: a soaking bubble pool kept at 35 degrees thus popular for long soak and for children, a seasonal herbal pool with different water every day (when I was there on July 8th, it was rose), massage pool with super jet (at super hot 42 degrees water), and a small cooling pool. Soap and shampoo/conditioner is provided for free with no charge for hair dryer. Closed on Tuesday.

Why are saunas so hot in Japan

One of my favorite past time is onsen or Japanese hot-bath. But when I was in Japan in summer 2022, sauna, which is relatively late introduction to bathing ritual is super hot in Japan. In every single onsen, almost everyone would bath in the hot heat of sauna.

I generally do not prefer sauna, as I found the heat, which can go up to 100 celcius, is oppresive. But this practice has been very popular in Nordic countries, especially Finland (thus the term Finnish sauna) and Iceland. In Iceland, there is a beautifully design Blue Lagoon that is hosting a few interconnected geothermal baths. The sauna is extremely expensive and offer multiple treatment such as the 5-hour Blue lagoon retreat, that includes entrance to Retreat Lagoon (a private lagoon), five spaces, and Blue lagoon ritual that seemed to combine practice of scrubbing with beneficial minerals, lava mud, and silica.

Sauna come from Finnish language. It is a ritual associated with well being, relaxation, and often combined with the practice of dipping in natural lake.

In Japan, onsen often hosts a combination indoor and outdoor pools and saturated with beneficial minerals. All onsen that I have been to, has at minimum a hot pool, cool pool, and a jet pool - as well as nowadays a sauna room.

Renting in Singapore

 Lately the rental prices had soared in Singapore. My tenant of 2 years since pre-Covid is moving out and getting their own place. We managed to get new tenant 2 months before the place is available, after posting in market for just few days and received 3 offers from the very first viewing! In any case, we received offer that was even higher than the publicized price. 

Finally this weekend is the handover.

In Singapore, based on the current law, the minimum rental period of any residential units is 6 months. A property agent can be the facilitator, and commonly the agent would represent the landlord and collect commission. The renter generally should not need to pay the agent commission, unless the agent exclusively worked for the renter over filtering multiple units and thus earn comission based on mutual agreement. 

For a rental period of 1 year, it is common to pay agent half-month's commission, and for the renter to be keeping 1 month's rental deposit to the landlord that shall be returned at the end of rental period. For 2 years' rental, agent commission is a month's rental and the security deposit is 2 month's rental.

During the period, the renter can enjoy the unit in peace and quiet, and potentially accommodate viewings if/when the unit is open for sale, or at the end of rental for new prospective rental. In my case, we discussed and agreed whether the renter would continue to extend their lease around 2-3 months prior to the end of lease.

  

Ginza in Tokyo

Today's Ginza is one of the premier shopping destination and high-end dining and shopping location in Tokyo. It is located nearby an islet, and it is thought that Ginza was originally marshes land that was reclaimed including the surrounding Hibiya and the site of former Tsukiji market. Ginza, Shimbashi, and Kanda area are the heart of downtown old Tokyo.

According to this article, Ginza name originated from gin 銀 or 'silver' and ja/za 座 or 'seat' as it was the site of silver mint that exclusively designated by Tokugawa shogunate in Edo (old name of Tokyo. Ginza was the centre of the artisans, merchants, as well as theater actors of Kabuki and Noh players who provided entertainment. It sits on Tokaido which is the old Kyoto to Edo highway linking the two top towns of Japan in olden times.

Later on, Ginza was redeveloped after big fire with bricks to be fireproof and thus developed a number of unique Japanese-Western style buildings and became known to be bricktown or Rengagai. One of remaining building from that era is Wako building with clock on top that was made by clockmaker who founded Seiko.

Ethical Theory

Ethics is also known as moral philosophy. This discipline studies what is morally good and bad, and what is morally right or wrong.

Normative ethical theory branch studies on what people ought to do, in moral sense. There are 2 general theory of normative ethics: 

1). The Teleological theory that focuses on consequences, and hence it is outcome based theory or consequentialism. Teleological derives from Greek word telos or "end" / "goal". Ethical egoism is one of them, and it is based on self-interests. This self-interest as principle is not the same as selfishness, that disregard the interests of others. Restricted ethical egoism is further restricted or bounded by law or the norms. Depending on what is considered as important (axiology), an alternative to ethical egoism is utilitarianism which focuses on choice that provides the greatest benefit to greatest number of people. The challenge with this theory is that logical weighing of pros and cons of each options is often complex and not straightforward. 

2). The Deontological theory focuses on the intention. Deontological derives from Greek word deon or "duties". This theory argues that decision should be made considering one's rights and duties, thus this theory lays down strict rules. It can be rights based, or justice based. Rights based ethical choice respects the rights of individuals. The challenge with this is that there is no hierarchy of rights, so a right of individual could infringe another right of the other. Justice based ethical choice focuses on providing fairness and equity. This distribution of rights or disadvantages could be very complex, and it can be needs-based, merit-based, or equality-based.  

House purchase in Singapore

Roughly 3 types of residential properties in Singapore:

1. HDB (Housing Development Board) units, or public housing. They are 99-years leasehold under HDB Government rule. Resale market after MOP (Minimum Occupation Period) of 5 to 10 years. Such as McNair Towers at Balestier area. 5 mins walk to Boon Keng MRT, wet market is nearby, as well as supermarket Sheng Siong. Block 113A and 113B are the 4-room unit, we viewed units at level 34 and 35, asking price almost 1mil SGD. Also subject to Ethnic Quota.